Expression 3 – More than You think!

One of the best things about working at Microsoft (sorry, it’s about the only way to say it…) are the phenomenal people you meet and in some cases actually get to work with.  I was with a “boatload” (pirate joke - you had to be there) of such folk earlier this week at a meeting in San Diego.  

To say I learned a lot is an understatement. I took notes as is my style but I left my (paper) notebook on a conference room table and won’t see it until it is returned in the mail this week.  In the meantime I want to call out just one of the more interesting folks in our group that I met for the first time in San Diego.

Jason Campbell is a User Experience Evangelist (or UXE in Microsoft-speak) for the West region. UXE’s are on the front line of changing the way we look at data, design, and systems in general. I was initially exposed to their unique contributions by Jason’s colleague, Will Tschumy.  Jason and Will are key conduits for Microsoft to the design community in general and to design agencies in particular as they become more crucial to the effective delivery of systems.

This is a tip of the iceberg example, but I was enamored with Jason’s latest video in his series on new features in Expression 3 Blend. In “Intro to Sample Data” Jason takes us through a test drive of Expressions ability to provide sample data for building an application and easily manipulating the interface and data access approaches to the underlying data. No database needed! Enjoy!